Scientists studied two sets of rats, one group with high blood pressure (“hypertensive”) and one with normal blood pressure (“normal”). The research team removed a portion of the biological material from the large intestine of each group. All animals were then given antibiotics for 10 days to reduce their natural microbiota. After the course of antibiotics, the researchers transplanted hypertensive microbiota to normal blood pressure rats and normal microbiota to the hypertensive group.

The researchers found that the group treated with hypertensive microbiota developed elevated blood pressure. A more surprising result is that the rats treated with normal microbiota did not have a significant drop in blood pressure, although readings did decrease slightly.

Something to Believe In

You could write a review of this album on .

That would be generous.

"Is it a fact—or have I dreamt it—that, by means of electricity, the world of matter has become a great nerve, vibrating thousands of miles in a breathless point of time?"— Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, 1851